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Committee advances and hears resource testimony on multiple technical bills; most left pending
Summary
The Senate Business & Commerce Committee considered several technical and cleanup bills involving TDLR, licensure, CPA licensure pathways, foreclosure trustees, telephone solicitation definitions and ringside physician liability. Public testimony was received on each and the bills were left pending for further consideration.
The Senate Committee on Business & Commerce heard a set of comparatively brief presentations and resource testimonies on multiple bills and left each pending for additional consideration.
Senate Bill 627, offered by Sen. Zaffirini, is a TDLR-requested cleanup measure to remove obsolete language from the Occupations Code related to dietitian licensure and align statute with current agency practice; the committee opened and closed public testimony and left the bill pending.
Senate Bill 703, also presented by Sen. Zaffirini, would update massage licensure and strengthen disqualifying offense language; senators heard the agency request and left the bill pending.
Senate Bill 764 would modernize hearing procedures at the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation for electricians; TDLR presented the cleanup proposal and the committee left the bill pending.
Senate Bill 372, introduced by Sen. Campbell, would codify an attorney general opinion allowing a corporate entity to serve as a substitute trustee in mortgage foreclosure sales under Texas Property Code 51. George Lane of Auction.com testified in support, explaining that clarifying that a trustee may be a legal entity would reduce administrative burden and confusion. The committee left the bill pending.
Senate Bill 262, sponsored by Sen. Perry, creates an alternate pathway to CPA licensure by allowing candidates with 120 hours of accounting-focused coursework and two years’ work experience to sit for the CPA exam. Mohan Kuruvala, chair of the Texas Society of CPAs, testified the bill is designed to address pipeline shortages and does not reduce overall professional standards; the committee left the bill pending.
Senate Bill 376 would expand confidentiality protections for current and former attorney general employees and their immediate family members; the committee received a resource witness from the attorney general’s office and left the bill pending.
Senate Bill 140, sponsored by Sen. Hall, would extend the definition of a telephone solicitation in chapter 302 to include text messaging so that unauthorized text solicitations could be treated the same as telephone solicitations; the bill was presented, public testimony was opened and closed, and it was left pending.
Senate Bill 842 addresses liability protections for ringside physicians at TDLR-licensed combative sports events. Courtney Arbor, Executive Director of TDLR, and Chris Resi, director of field inspections at TDLR, explained that events are required to assign ringside physicians and that physician reluctance to serve — rather than recorded lawsuits — has limited available staffing. Resi told the committee that the agency has about 70 physicians available statewide, but only 20–30 routinely attend events; he also said there have been no lawsuits to date arising from those duties. The bill would provide civil-immunity protection for ringside physicians except in cases of gross negligence; the committee left the bill pending.
Across the items the committee relied on resource and stakeholder testimony from state agencies, trade groups and individual witnesses and asked authors and agencies for follow-up materials in several cases. Each bill was left pending for additional review.
